Mid A 15 wrote:
Mrs Wilson (never knew her Christian name but wife of Roger Wilson the maths teacher) ran a voluntary "O" level evening class in divinity from her home which I attended.

ah, that was jennifer wilson, took me to grade A in A level (A/S?) in divinity. she was a wonderful teacher, her husband, roger "ack" wilson was my housemaster in PeA... also a very fine person.

Thanks for that!

She was an excellent teacher and managed to make the subject both interesting and enjoyable. I don't recall the A level option being available in my time as I would probably have had a stab at it if it was.

Mid A 15 wrote:She was an excellent teacher and managed to make the subject both interesting and enjoyable. I don't recall the A level option being available in my time as I would probably have had a stab at it if it was.

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almost too excellent... i sailed through the A level, and went on to study theology, but lost interest completely, and dropped it after a year... was never the same without Jen... im not sure, how available the A was... it MAY have been a one off for me, even... my memories are somewhat foggy... did you have lessons in the sitting room in PeA too?

roger wilson was a very decent housemaster, too... i kept in touch with the wilsons for some years afterward, roger having left CH to take on a headmastership... but lost contact somewhere along the way, sadly...

Mid A 15 wrote:She was an excellent teacher and managed to make the subject both interesting and enjoyable. I don't recall the A level option being available in my time as I would probably have had a stab at it if it was.

[/quote]

almost too excellent... i sailed through the A level, and went on to study theology, but lost interest completely, and dropped it after a year... was never the same without Jen... im not sure, how available the A was... it MAY have been a one off for me, even... my memories are somewhat foggy... did you have lessons in the sitting room in PeA too?

roger wilson was a very decent housemaster, too... i kept in touch with the wilsons for some years afterward, roger having left CH to take on a headmastership... but lost contact somewhere along the way, sadly...[/quote]

The Wilsons lived in East Gun Copse in my day. I think Roger was attached to Lamb B then as a junior housemaster. We used to have our lessons on a Monday evening after tea in the East Gun Copse house. There were about 5 of us from memory.

I vaguely remember being told that we were the first pupils she'd taught for a while (family commitments and childcare presumably) so perhaps she eased herself back into it teaching us O level and took on A levels later.

As you say the old memory is a bit blurred - it was 39 years ago for me. The summer of 1970.

The Wilsons had two sons..Jerome and Simon. Simon was a year above me but stayed on for 7th term Oxbridge and captained the 1st XV. great bloke like his dad. I saw him in USA afterwards but then lost all contact...

Prior to Dr N-P taking over we had Dr Hoskins (of flu vaccination fame - google it) his wife taught remedial english in the doctors house. Mrs Sillett was dep head of my Primary school in Slinfold and the reason I ended up at CH.

ah... sillett... not my favourite teacher... somewhat over zealous with his understanding of corporal punishment... anyone else remember his "tangents"?... a punishment adminstered with a slicing action of a ruler, extremely painful, and mostly administered in the lav ends to bare buttocks... im sure that was not "allowed" even then... very humiliating....
i started in BaA, with og littlefield, peter "cobber" cornish...and ormanroyd?... then littlefield retired, making way for the amazingly energetic roger martin... his landrover, i remember the number STILL... WAM 115... went on summer holiday with him and a pile of other kids in the scottish highlands, (don maclean tape still echoes in my memories)... great fun holiday, til the tide came in...*laugh*
teachers that evoke fond memories?... well, roger wilson for one... extremely decent, fair minded person... roger the dodger martin also... "pinky" palmer... paddy cullen... the strouds, husband and wife..
it would probably be easier to list the teachers that were less good, or unpleasant... but i suppose thats another topic, and dosent really make much sense, after so long...
actually, im completely off topic already... sorry, i suppose im getting old...*laughs into his rather delicious austrian beer*

BARE BUTTOCKS ???? Even in my days -- 1940-1946, this was unheard of -- and Corporal Punishment was the norm. but always with Gym Shorts on.
Can you imagine the storm that would have evinced-- ? there are ways (Or used to be !) of getting rid of people like that. (And I mean by the Pupils and Staff working together !)

Neill, you clearly haven't read Magee on MacNutt. It wasn't so much what was allowed, as what was turned a blind eye to. And Flecker in his last years turned a lot of blind eyes. Mind you, I'm surprised this still went on in Seaman's time. He really did wield a new broom in this sort of direction.

J.R. wrote:I seem to remember hearing rumours that C.M.E.S did use the cane himself, but cannot recollect any actual incidents during my time.

J.H. to the rescue ?

Can't remember hearing of Clarence using the cane, it would have to have been expulsion level for that to happen.
In Barnes, Miller used it, famously on either Major or Mayhew, can't remember which, who was caught out late after seeing a girlfriend down to the station, at least that was the story. Bent over, received 6, stood up, said you b******d, bent over again, unasked, and received another 4.
Littlefield was reputed to be pretty vicious, Tom Keely did, I believe, but was more bluster than anything else, and that concludes my recollections from our end of the Avenue.

It was rumoured, in my time that D S MacNutt, beat people with a Cricket Bat, which I always thought a bit badly thought out ---
Lionel Mahon Carey would put four strokes into one inch gaps, or all together, according to how cross he was !
I always found him fair, and I always deserved it !